Obscurity of the Day: Hannah

 

The amazingly prolific Courtney Dunkel had newspaper series published by a bunch of different syndicates, with Hannah
his only entry from the McClure Syndicate. It was also one of only two
in which he used a continuing character, this time a sweet old lady, and
billed as a pantomime. 

Courtney Dunkel was  no stickler, though.
When he comes up with a gag about duck hunting, well, why shouldn’t an
old lady in a maxi-length skirt be involved? And just because the strip
is a pantomime, if you can’t quite get the gag over, well, what’s one
little word balloon between friends?

Hannah debuted on
November 20 1944, and was sold not only as a pantomime (hey, run it in
foreign language papers!) but also as a vertical so that it takes up a
mere one column space (fit it in anywhere!). Newspaper editors were
generally not too enthused, as there were more and more one-column
panels being produced in those days of (supposed) paper shortages. The
strip never appeared in more than a modest number of papers, and was
quietly retired on December 27 1947** after a three year run.

 * Source: Chicago Sun

** Source: New York Post

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